


Stray Cats

by lilacSkye



Category: Saint Seiya, 聖闘士星矢・セインティア翔 | Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō
Genre: Aiolia is just a big softie, Angst, Bonding over trauma, Brotherly Bonding, Friendship, Gen, Other tags to be added later, Regret, Shoko is kind of a brat in this, she's just sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 06:08:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19042696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacSkye/pseuds/lilacSkye
Summary: History repeats itself.





	Stray Cats

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't even finished reading Saintia Sho, I only got to the end of the Sanctuary arc and yet here I am, getting ideas that just don't leave me alone. Gosh darn it

He finds her at the bottom of the white marble stairs.

She's sitting there, perched upon her bronze Pandora's Box, waiting under Athen's hammering summer sun. Her eyes never leave the stairway leading up the Sanctuary's first temple as she nibbles nervously at her lower lip, as her hands curl into fist and then unfold again, her palms sweaty from the heat and anxiety. Sweat is beading up across her forehead, dampening her short ponytail.

The first day, Aioria ignores her. Her cosmo is still low and inexperienced, and although if he strains a little he can feel some sort of emotional turmoil in her budding energy, she doesn't look like she's moved by any particular ill intent against Athena. If anything, she ignores him too when he walks the last few steps down the First Temple, barely glancing at his direction. No, she's moved by personal reasons; perhaps a vendetta against one of the Gold Saints. Wouldn't be the first time, nor will it be the last.

He feels her eyes linger, following the golden glint of his cloth; her cosmo spikes up in rage, and Aioria is already mentally preparing to dodge when a deep sadness - a grieving the kind of which no young girl should ever be familiar with - snuffs out her energy and her cosmo drops, dejected and frustrated.

Aioria stops, disconcerted by such a repentine change, by the sheer familiarity of that sorrow. He stares and she stares back, defiant and unmoving. He is not the object of her hatred, that he can see, but that doesn't mean she won't tell him to fuck off, all rules be damned.

He would know, after all. He used to have that same look in his eyes: the look of a lion in a cage, cornered and hungry, starving, longing desperately for something, recognition, _justice_ -

He whirls away. There's nothing he can do about it.

* * *

This keeps up for two weeks straight. He's not the only one who has noticed their silent visitor, day after day; Aldebaran and Mu, ever so kind, have even tried to approach her, but she just turned them away, politely but firmly, saying she is waiting for someone.

One day it's pouring, and Aioria has had enough.

He picks up his cape on the way out of the Leo temple, but does not wear it. Instead, he carefully tucks it in the crook of his elbow, making sure it stays as dry as he can feasibly keep it.

He rushes down the four temple lying below, barely acknowledging Mu and Aldebaran's questioning looks. He's fairly sure they know what's in his mind; he's never been particularly good at masking his emotions and keep his fiery temper in check. Aioros used to scold him all the time for being too brash.

He swallows painfully, slowing down as he reaches the end of the wide, marble stairway, already thoroughly soaked after a few minutes. No matter how long ago it's been, the wound is still there and open and festering - now more than ever, after all the hideous truths Seiya and his friends have brought to life.

He should have acted sooner.

_Weak. Coward._

He steps on the muddy path leading up to Sanctuary, and there she is, always in the same spot by the broken pillar, sitting ramrod straight on her Box with that distant look. The rain pelts her lithe form with unspeakable ferocity, but she sits perfectly still, simply uncaring of the war the elements are waging against her. Her hair is dark and plastered to the soft curve of her still youthful face, like fine cracks lining a marble mask.

She looks smaller, as though shrunken by the neverending waters, but to him she appears immense.

He approaches with heavy steps. She undoubtedly hears him, perhaps even feels his cosmo - she seems to be a saint, although she's not wearing the customary mask - but pointedly refuses to acknowledge him, even when Aioria goes as far as stepping right beside her.

Until-

" _Gyaah!!!_ "

Her indignant squeak when Aioria all but slaps his cape on her goes utterly unheeded, just like the flailing punch she throws in a very clumsy attempt at self defense. He dodges it without even thinking, on pure autopilot, as his hands quickly wrap the cape around her soaking wet form - she's trembling, he belatedly notices. She must have been freezing out here who knows how long - and in an instant he has her thrown over his shoulder, not unlike a particularly riotous potato sack.

"Hey!!" She yells when she finally realizes her predicament, "What's the big idea? Let me go!!"

She empathizes her point with punches and kicks all over his torso, but she can be made if water as far as he's concerned, much to her blatant chagrin. She wiggles desperately with all the strength she can muster up, to no avail: Aioria's grip is vice-like, never budging an inch, even when he scoops down to grab the girl's Pandora's Box and slides one of its straps over his free shoulder.

"Come on, girl, let's go." He says evenly, not even fazed by the valiant efforts of the girl thrashing over his shoulder.

"Go where? I don't want to go anywhere with you- wait, hold up, where-?!?"

She gasps when she sees the white marble steps slide past underneath her, and the surprise is startling enough to have her cease her attempts to regain her freedom, if only for a moment. Aioria is tempted to smirk; a moment is far more than enough for the Golden Lion.

All it takes is a brief burst of energy, all the while molding his cosmo into a barrier to wrap the girl within - she may be a saint, but she's clearly still wet behind her ears, he doubts she's used to move at the speed of light - and in a flash they're at the entrance of the fifth temple. The lit candles at the corners of the main foyer keep it warm and dry, as it should be for anyone who isn't the Aquarius saint.

"What the hell?" The girl blurts out, so confused by the repentine change of scenery she forgets to protest. Aioria doesn't complain: he carefully places the box on the floor and walks towards the small sofa in the corner. In a fluid movement, he slides her off his shoulder and drops her on the quite soft cushions.

"Hey, rude!!"

He arches an eyebrow. "Stay here. I'll fetch a towel to dry yourself and make some tea."

She throws him a withering look, though she winds up the wet cape around herself a little tighter. She's pale and clearly freezing to the bone.

"What if I don't want to stay? Why did you bring me here? Hey, answer me!!" She raises her voice when he spins on his heels and retreats to accomplish his quest.

When, a few minutes later, he comes back carrying two white towels slung over his left forearm and in right hand a tray with two cups and a pot of steaming tea, she's still there, hunched on herself.

He settles the tray on the nearby, small table and hands her a towel. She glowers at him, but eventually takes it.

"Thank you," she grumbles darkly as she pulls away the hair band keeping her ponytail tied. Her stringy hair falls in dark curls at the base of her neck. She drapes the towel over her head and starts drying it off. Aioria grabs a couple of pillows from the sofa and throws them yo the ground, sitting on them so that he's face to face with the girl. He too towels himself off.

"You're welcome."

Once again, silence falls, tense and cautious. As he throws the towel to the side and pours himself a generous cup of tea, he catches her spying him from beneath the hem of her towel.

"What?"

She eyes him warily, though her cheeks blush ever so slightly. She reminds him of Shaina. "Why have you brought me here? I thought only Athena's Gold Saints had permission to stay here?"

He shrugs. "Was I supposed to let you freeze to death out there? It doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon. Gold Saint or not, it's just the human thing to do." he nudges his head to the nearest window. The rain is coming down in sheets so thick it's impossible to see an inch past the glass. He takes a huge gulp of tea, relishing in the heat.

She scoffs, haughtily and cutting and bitter, and Aioria's worst fears are instantly confirmed.

"Oh so now you Gold Saints _care_ , do you?"

He watches her as she hunches down further, fingers clamped painfully tight over her knees to the point they're blanched white. He thinks he sees a couple of tears fall down, though it might be the water dripping down her hair.

He sets his cup on the table.

"We are human too. That means we care, obviously, but also…" he sighs deeply, wondering why he's doing all of this. After all, he doesn't know this girl in the least.

 _But she's just like you._ A voice supplies unhelpfully in his head. _A little stray cat._

"Also…?" She prods, curious despite herself. He nearly chuckles.

"Also that we make mistakes. And since our power is so great, it's not uncommon for us to get blinded more easily, leading to much heavier blunders than the average person."

She frowns.

"You can say that again."

Her tone is so dejected that even Aioria's ever so steadfast heart - and always for the wrong reasons, old fool - falters. He wonders what Aioros would say in this situation. Unlike Aioria, he'd always been a good listener, and a source of precious advise for everyone.

"You lost someone dear at the hand of one of us Gold Saints, didn't you?"

The girl shakes more violently, then she nods.

"My big sister…" she chokes, and this time the tears are clear as day. "I… I thought if I came here to face the guy who killed her, even if I died trying, at least I would have had some peace of mind, but…"

"But you can't." Aioria finishes for her, frozen between the urge to shield this girl and the need to have his brother's comforting presence. Gods, what would he give to switch places… "You're afraid that you might find a human being, and not a monster."

She lets out a strangled sob. "Yes."

Aioria sighs again. He's been through all of that already. He knows there is no getting better from that.

"I too lost my older brother to a Gold Saint, a long time ago." He says after a while, and instantly the girl lifts her head, her reddish eyes wide as saucers.

"Really?!? And you didn't hate him?"

Aioria smiles mirthlessly. Did he hate Shura? He likes to say that no, he doesn't hate the Capricorn saint. Shura was only a couple of years older than Aioria himself was at the time, barely a boy, and he was manipulated by Saga. It's not his fault. He did nothing wrong.

But when he felt the older saint's cosmo fade into the outskirts of the galaxy, a few months ago, before the truth was revealed… he distinctly recalls the spark of petty joy - of revenge finally fulfilled, of _justice_ \- that flickered through his heart.

"I don't know." He eventually has to admit. "I acknowledge he did it convinced it was the right thing to do, but still… his hand cut my brother's life down. There is no denying it."

The girl arches her eyebrows, quite disbelieving. He shakes his head.

"It's not always that black and white… Er, what's your name again?"

She hesitates a moment. "Shouko."

A Japanese name. What an interesting coincidence.

Or perhaps no coincidence at all.

"I'm Leo Aioria. It's a pleasure to meet you."

**Author's Note:**

> I know, Shouko is a bit too bitter and angry. But I mean, she saw her sister die. I think she has a right to be.
> 
> Hope you liked it, let me know your thoughts!


End file.
